


The Soldier and the Ghost

by JackieMoonshine



Series: The Soldier and the Ghost [1]
Category: Ant-Man (Movies), Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: AU, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Assassins & Hitmen, Buddy Assassin, Chronic Pain, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, F/M, Gen, Mentor/Protégé, No Smut, Not Beta Read, Pre-Captain America: The Winter Soldier, SHIELDRA, Sporadic Updates, StarrSoldier, Starrbucks, WinterGhost - Freeform, WinterStarr, buddy cop, but the series will, ghostsoldier, mature for violence and language, more like, planning this to be a multi-fic series, this will not have a happy ending
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-11
Updated: 2020-12-30
Packaged: 2021-03-10 03:33:50
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 7
Words: 11,659
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27507667
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JackieMoonshine/pseuds/JackieMoonshine
Summary: Ava Starr unknowingly walks the line between SHIELD and HYDRA. Alexander Pierce wants to push her over that line and knows just the partner to make that happen.
Relationships: James "Bucky" Barnes & Ava Starr, James "Bucky" Barnes/Ava Starr
Series: The Soldier and the Ghost [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2010331
Comments: 15
Kudos: 18





	1. A man, a plan, and a partner

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first ever fan fic that I've posted. I love both these characters and wanted to explore their time in SHIELDRA. I openly admit I'm not super tied to canon but if you see something particularly egregious, please let me know as I can incorporate it into re-writes. I'm planning this fic to be mostly relationship building on a platonic and teamwork level a la buddy cop movies -- but a bit darker of course, because its more like buddy-brainwashed-assassins. Also, this is un-beta'd so let me know if you catch a typo or something.
> 
> I have a few short chapters written ahead and know the ending, but expect this to be updated sporadically. 
> 
> Uhhh. I think that's it? I hope you enjoy! ♥

Ava Starr laid down on her bed, curled up and clutching her stomach. People called her magic but nothing could ease the pain that settled in her bones. It didn’t stop. The pain never completely stopped, but the suit helped. It stabilized her phasing, and which meant it also helped the pain. Here, at rest, it was a dull, aching throb that pounded again and again in a steady, predictable rhythm, like a second heartbeat. Out in the word, billions of needles stabbed her inside and out, over and over again, patches being torn out and re-sewn. Slowly she drifted off. 

________________

She awoke abruptly, a heavy buzzing filling her quarters. Someone was at her door. She slowly rolled out of her bed, pausing to rub her eyes and wrap the blanket around herself. Groggy and in pain, she slowly made her way out of the bedroom, closing the door behind her. She had been grateful when Bill managed to secure her a private quarters, including bathroom, sleeping quarters, a small sitting space. It wasn’t much but it gave her a bit of sanctuary from others in the world of S.H.I.E.L.D. Made it feel more like home instead of a barrack. 

She wasn’t wearing her suit, just normal pajamas wrapped in a blanket and didn’t even try to control her phasing. She skipped across reality and opened the door. Charlotte O’Neil stood at the door, dark hair pulled back into a sleek ponytail and dressed in her standard slacks and button up. 

“Morning, Charlie” Ava mumbled, “d’ya want anything? Tea, coffee?”

“Nah, thanks, just got done with dinner.” 

“Jesus , I was out for almost 20 hours this time” Ava muttered as she began to make some coffee. “Did you come to check up on me?”

“I wish.” Charlotte responded, rolling her eyes, “if it were up to me, I'd have let you sleep off your recon trip a bit longer but -” she held up a thick file - “duty calls”. 

“Of course,” Ava sighed and poured some coffee into her mug. She walked over and sat next to Charlie on the small couch, as she flipped open the file on the coffee table. “The suit ain't free, that's for sure. So what’ve we got today, hm? Heist? Personnel retrieval? Scouting?”

“Well a bit of everything, to be honest,” she began spreading papers and photos out in front of them. “First, there's a man. A protege of an agent of Hydra who disappeared after they were taken down in the forties. A top man in R & D. It has recently come to light that he's been shopping around a bit of tech we're interested in.”

“Oooh tech, I like it. Quantum?”

Charlotte raised her eyebrows and shrugged. “Not technically, no but!” she she held up a finger to stop Ava’s upcoming interjection “it's related to genetic mapping, editing and integration at a human level -”

“Integration? What exactly is he looking to integrate?”

“And into whom? It could be anything - - animal, plant, hell even alien or nano tech - - into anyone. We're talking genetically engineered supers here, on demand.”

Eva let out a long, low whistle. “well, we wouldn't want a bunch of freaks out there running loose, would we?” She was joking but her voice sounded tired, pained. She took a drink of her coffee. Freaks seemed to be increasing exponentially lately. 

“It's not just the man, though.” Charlie flipped a few pages ahead and pointed at a paragraph. “We also suspect there's an extensive, long term plan of application of this tech for specific purposes, mainly and most likely a destabilizing schematic for the current power structure of the Western World. You'll have to extract the data from his database, located here, three floors below his upper office. We'll equip you with a remote access tool. You'll just have to establish the connection and one of the techies will identify and transfer the information we need.”

“Easy-peasy” Ava closed her eyes and attempted to lean her forehead against Charlotte’s shoulder. She stayed for a moment, then flickered, dropping through her friends body. Charlotte didn't even flinch; she'd been Ava’s primary contact within SHIELD since they began her training. Bill still handled all her quantum needs, but it was Charlotte who ran between Ava and the ones in charge. The women had become close, or at least as close as the job would allow. 

“There's one more thing…” Charlie hesitated. “Look, the best thing would be extraction with both the target and the plans. But if it doesn't work out, it's best for the target to be eliminated and retrieve the data, destroying the database.”

“Great, so it's an assassination then?” Ava rolled her eyes and got off the couch. 

“Only if things go wrong. Ava. You have to understand, it's S.H.I.E.L.D’s duty to protect the world from threats. Can you imagine if this tech fell into the wrong hands? If Hydra picked it up? Terrorists would have a field day. And look, last time you had kill orders…”

“I did it, didn't I?” Ava snapped. She walked through the coffee table, irritated. 

“Well, yeah but it obviously isn't playing to your strengths. To be frank, we can't jeopardize the mission simply on the basis of your conscience, Ava. ” Ava put her coffee down and spun to face Agent O’Neil. 

“And yet you're here, giving me the mission. So what's the catch?” She crossed her arms and waited. Pain danced across her skin as she waited, flickering, for Charlotte's answer. 

Charlotte stood, taking a photo from the file. “You'll have a partner.” 

“Babysitter more like.” 

“He's ruthless, a total brute and killer. But he's sort of complete shit when it comes to tech. He's stealthy and good at what he does but he's not a normal agent.” 

Ava looked at Charlie with skepticism. She took the photo, and examined it. “‘Winter Soldier,’ huh? Got a nice ring to it. Needs a haircut though.” she read the specs and laughed out loud. “ The dude's got a metal arm? You're kidding me. Is this a joke?”

Charlotte shrugged. “Never met the guy. He's very hush-hush. Apparently a super soldier asset obtained from Hydra decades back. If they're putting you on a mission with him… Well I'd consider that a promotion.”

“Hell, if that's the case I'd better get a raise and a narcotics increase! Or maybe they'll actually make like they said when I was a kiddo -”

“Look Ava, with this tech, especially looking into the nano aspect of -” Ava held up her hand and cut her off abruptly. 

“I've heard that before. But whatever, it doesn't matter. I'm here; you know I'm not going anywhere, as if I could. So, just give me the information I need and I'll be where I need to be when I need to be there.”

“Everything is in the folder. Let me know if you have any questions.” Charlotte got up and went to the door. “You're doing good, you know. In our hands, this could cure cancer, heal genetic defects…” 

But Ava had already phased back to her bed, behind her closed bedroom door, where Charlotte couldn't see her, curled up and quiet. 


	2. Thumbs Up

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Winter Soldier lends Ghost a hand.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Let me know what you think -- I'm currently finishing up Chapter 6 right now. This formatting is a pain but I'm trying my best to get it right.

They sat across from one another in the darkness. Minimal staff manned the jet with a tense, quiet energy. Ghost sat, looking at her surroundings through the red glow of her stability suit. Her partner sat across from her, his face covered by his own tactical gear, unreadable. He underwent his own mission briefing - apparently he required special, in-depth instruction. 

Both carried lightweight but heavily equipped rucksacks coordinated with their respective uniforms, armed with ammo and firepower. Knives in boots, around belts, hell he probably even had one up his sleeve - the sleeve which Ghost knew hid his gleaming, gloved prosthetic. 

“Alright Soldier, Agent.” Rumlow clapped his hands together, “ You've both been briefed as to your mission. Acting as STRIKE team: Umbra, extract the target and data if possible but if you run into problems, it's better the target be eliminated than fall into anyone else's hands. Got it? Alright, let's open the doors and prepare to drop.”

Ghost tightened her chute around her waist and shoulders. 

“Com check?” Rumlow’s voice entered her suit. 

“Check” Ghost responded, her voice modulated and inhuman through the suit.

“Check” the soldier answered. 

The hangar door lowered, and the roar of the passing air filled the jet. The Soldier stood, and stood at the opening looking down below, holding his weapon in his hand. He looked over his shoulder at his partner, still in her seat. Rumlow started the countdown. 

“Dispatch in ten, nine, eight…” 

“You coming?” the Soldier asked, voice deadpan. 

“five, four, three…” 

“Worry about yourself, soldier.” Ghost crossed her arms, flickering and leaned back, phasing through the jet and falling into the cold night air. She still wasn't thrilled at being babysat. 

The Ghost and the Soldier plummeted, counted the feet and pulled their chutes at nearly the same moment. 

Ava hated chute missions. It took focus , even with the suit, to keep from phasing through her straps. They coasted through the air. “Prepare for landing” he announced. They landed with a soft thud, unclipping their parachutes. Silently, they gathered the chutes, wrapped them as tightly as manageable and hid them under the brush. 

The target had settled in a former soviet era munitions plant in a distant backwater of Eastern Europe. It was the best place to be - lax laws, quiet people who would look away for the right amount. Not to mention easy access to buyers in North Africa, Europe, Russia, the Middle East and Asia. Easy enough to enter product into the market here. 

The Winter Soldier blended into the night a shadow among shadows. Ghost was painfully aware of her white suit in the darkness and flickered, disappearing. She felt her cells tear apart like poorly mended hem. She could see, but none could see her. The soldier swung his head back and forth. “Ghost, copy?” he whispered. 

“Copy that.” Ghost replied, materializing beside him. His head turned towards her, his reaction blocked behind his tactical mask. She hadn’t seen his face. Her handlers deemed it unnecessary, especially given his highly classified status. She supposed he had been told the same about her. Even her voice was hard to discern as male or female in her suit. Now, standing beside him, she clearly felt the size difference between the two. He was thick, a good half foot taller than her. The mask made him feel depersonalized, almost inhuman. Same as me she thought. “I don’t simply disappear -” she explained. “I dematerialize, I phase out the majority of my being into another reality. If you have infrared, you won’t see me. Night vision won’t do it either. Nothing will, because my body in fact is not present. My presence becomes so thin as to be gone. But don’t worry. I don’t abandon missions. I don’t typically work with partners, but I don’t abandon them either. If you don’t see me, I’m near.” 

The soldier nodded. “We’ll approach from the west, I’ll take my post at that ridge” he pointed at a small outcropping of stone, covered in sparse brush which overlooked the Soviet-era settlement below. “You travel down, reach the west loading dock. Get the door unlocked. I’ll pick off anyone who approaches or tries to interrupt.” 

“Roger that.” Ghost responded. “I’ll send word when I’ve got the door open, then you can make your way down there.” Ghost flickered out and began to make her approach. The building looked more like a typical apartment complex than the laboratory it housed. Heavy, concrete, four stories tall, with opaque windows evenly and sparingly spaced across the exterior. The streets were dark. The town was initially built for workers on a nearby dam but had been sitting practically empty until the Georgian government decided the real estate used for refugees was worth more empty than filled with the needy. They relocated families who had lived in the capital for decades to this forsaken infertile patch of earth that was good for nothing and most of them - - those who could afford it - - chose to leave and make their own way. The others stayed, displaced from both their homeland and their new land. People without a country. Left in some backwater and now adopted into the local black market tech tycoon’s booming business as thugs, nameless and disposable. 

Ava used to be sympathetic to these types. After all, her life seemed like one displacement after another. First, her uprooting after birth to the US from Britain, then her family shunned at the word of Hank Pym to the Southern Cone, where she was reduced to a quantum anomaly and returned to S.H.I.E.L.D’S care. She didn't have a country; she had an agency. 

Now the feeling of sympathy was a mere dull awareness of resignation to injustice. And apparently (as demonstrated by the presence of her brusque babysitter) it was still too much for S.H.I.E.L.D’s liking. She strode forward, seen by nobody, the low, wide complex growing as she approached. 

She edged toward the concrete parking lot. At the far edge, a ramp cleaved into the ground, leading to a basement loading dock. Two floors beneath would be the database, two floors up, the office of the tech dealer. She stepped out into the parking lot, letting herself flicker for brief moments as she walked across the dimly lit lot. She heard a distant gasp, then two impacts as her partner, from his distant perch eliminated the threats. She would draw them out, and he'd pick them off, distant and invisible. 

She flashed across the lot, creeping down the ramp, now maintaining her physicality long enough to connect her decoding device to the security pad. The handheld device connected to the security pad through a simple port and generated codes to bypass most systems. This time however, it wasn't working. The screen flashed red and displayed “connection failure”. Ava pulled the port and inspected the pad. It had a numeric keypad but an attachment had been retrofitted to the left side : a thumb-pad of some sort, though different from the typical scanners she encountered. 

“I need a thumb,” she said. He signaled affirmative. A few moments later, he appeared at her side, a severed hand held out to her. 

“Christ,” she said, taking the hand. She pressed the thumb against the pad. “you're lucky this suit is stain resistant.” With a swift click, a small blade pricked the thumb of the severed hand, drawing blood. It pooled, and the security pad turned green, buzzed, and clanked as the door began to roll open. “I'm going to make my way down to the database to extract the information and plans. You go fetch Dr. Moretti.” 

They walked into the garage and loading area. Dim lighting casted pale pools of light across the concrete. They stuck along the edges, avoiding the cameras they could hear whirring back and forth. Without hesitation, the Soldier pointed a handgun toward the camera pointed at the stairwell and pulled the trigger. They would have a few moments before the security was dispatched. The Soldier made his way up the stairwell, while Ghost went down. While it was possible for her to phase through the floor, it wasn't the wisest plan since they didn't have a complete layout of the building. The pain in her bones told her though, that somewhere in some other reality, she dropped straight through. In another, she traveled upstairs, but in this one, she traveled downward. All those pieces of her pulled apart, like forcing her body through a razor sieve and having it pinned back together, everything in its place. She felt like a little less of her returned every time. 

Down the stairs, she reached a guarded corridor. A quick elbow to the temple took the guard out of service, and Ghost stalked through the doors which guarded rows of servers behind a spread of expansive computer setup. Multiple screens spread across a long desk, and several auxiliary set-ups were placed at either end of the central system. The screens were blank, but the gentle humming told Ava the computers were actively running. She took off her backpack, reached in and grabbed the remote access tool. It attached via a usb, but the body was thick and long, covered in a durable coat of military grade protection. It was thicker than a typical flash drive, and fit in her hand like a knife handle. She inserted the device, and saw the light flash red, two, three times before turning yellow. The techies back at base had made the connection and were actively transferring data to the device. The sheer amount of data was too much to move via a wireless connection, especially from here in the backwoods of Georgia. 

Ava watched as files and windows opened and closed rapidly on the screen in front of her. Brief images, foreign script flew by, each only passing seconds on the screen. Images, blueprints of DNA and other medical devices filled the screen. Maps, profiles of people -- perhaps potential buyers? -- also flew by. Ava began to turn away but stopped short. There, on the screen flashing briefly before disappearing altogether, was an image of her.


	3. Radio Silence

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ghost and the Winter Soldier experience some...communication breakdowns.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, first of all I apologize for calling the country of Georgia an "asscrack". It actually is a very beautiful country with a lot to offer! Honestly after watching some YouTube videos, I really want to go there, the food in particular looks freaking amazing. Hopefully the next chapters make up for that. 
> 
> ALSO I know I have a long way to go with my writing. I'm working on it. Right now I'm just banging these chapters out and am pleased as punch. 
> 
> I want to ask you, readers -- is there any particular "trope" or anything you'd like to see with this pairing? I am working on Chapter 8 right now and there's sort of a...intermission? A resting point? where I have some freedom to play a little bit and I have no problem giving ya'll a little fanservice if you have something you'd like to see. No promises but I'll try my best ♡ If you got something, leave it in the comments for me!

Before S.H.I.E.L.D.

Before the suit. 

Before the pain. 

Her childhood face, for a moment. What was her baby picture doing here in the asscrack of Asia? Once they were back in contact range, Rumlow had some serious explaining to do. 

The remote access gave three sharp beeps and turned green. Ghost flickered over to the servers, phasing in and out of the whirring machines, sending sparks into the air as her quantum energy overloaded the database. “I’ve got the info, target acquired?” she asked in her com. She paused. No response. “Winter Soldier, has the target been acquired?” She paused again. Still no response. Shit. If that tank was silent, he must’ve run into something. 

The building shook. 

Or maybe he had just been waiting to make sure data was secure before destroying everything. Either way, she wanted to get up those stories quickly. She wanted to see Dr. Moretti herself. She scrambled to the stairs, taking them as quickly as possible. “Winter Soldier, do you copy?” she signaled again. Silence. Shit shit shit. 

She reached the floor of his office and phased out. The hall was lined with men in black, heavily armed and all pointing to a single door. Dr. Moretti. 

She softly crept down the hall, the men shifting uneasily at her presence. They couldn’t see her, but they could feel the energy of her presence, of the quantum energy she channeled. It made the atmosphere electric, gave people the spooks -- even the most cool-headed. She slid between two men into the next room and examined the scene. The room was filled with something. A gas. She saw the Winter Soldier sway, and slump against the wall. Two men stood near the back window, covered head to toe in black, sealed masks covering their face. A third stood, hands behind his back, gloves pulled and tucked under his sleeves, office slacks tucked into boots laced tightly, a mask pulled over his head and tucked into the high-neck military grade shirt. From what Ghost saw, the mask had been put on in a hurry: it was just slightly off-center. 

“Is he secured?” one man asked. He stood near the window, one hand on the sill. The other tightened something behind Moretti's waist. 

“Good to go.” the other responded. Ghost clocked their accents -- South African, by the sound of it. 

“Ok.” he touched his ear “Target secure. Bring around the hatch.” He looked at his partner. “Once this window opens, the airflow is going to dilute the inhibitor and we’ll have about ten seconds to get out of here. Got it?” the other man nodded. 

The gas must be absorbed through the skin somehow. Ghost was covered and sealed in her suit, but the soldier was vulnerable. They must’ve known they’d be here. There had been a leak. 

Ghost flickered, appearing behind the man posted by the window. She reached an arm through his stomach grabbing his gun and materializing. A sick splinching sound filled the room as Ava took aim, shooting the man’s partner in the gut from close range. She phased out, releasing her arm from the warm cavern of the man’s body as he fell to the floor, eyes wide in shock. She caught her own reflection in the mirror, a phantom covered in blood before she yanked open the window, allowing the airflow in to disperse the gas that had disabled her partner. She grabbed the doctor by the shoulder. “You’re coming with us.” she said, her voice mechanical in the suit. 

“Down!” the Soldier yelled. Ava forced the doctor down behind his thick desk as gunfire tore through the room. The men outside the door were making their way in. The Winter Soldier reached behind his back and rolled a small, metal grenade into the hall. It exploded, pushing a gust of smoke into the office. They waited for a moment. It was silent. Ghost stood, flickering. She was ready to get out of here. This mission should not have been this difficult. Something was wrong. She roughly reached down and forced the doctor up. “Get going!” she snarled as she yanked off his mask. 

Graying black hair fell into his eyes. They were wide with wonder. “...Ava Starr?” he asked. 

She froze. Her name. How did he know her name? 

“You’re alive!” He said, “then there’s still time -- Ava, I can fix you, I can fix it.” he said breathless. She backed off him

“Ghost.” The Soldier said sharply. “Get the target to the extraction point.”

But he had said her name. The Doctor knew her name. He had her picture. 

A flash filled the room. Ghost heard a heavy cord ripping through the air, clanging as it fell into place, latched to the object the men had secured behind the Doctor’s back. Magnetic. She couldn’t see anything, the flash grenade had temporarily blinded her. The Doctor called out, and she heard his body thud as it was pulled through the window. She stood and rushed to the ledge, scanning the sky. The Soldier was already there, gun leveled to his eye. The Doctor was a shadow against the night sky, being pulled up by a rope attached to a harness up to the helicopter.

He knew her name. 

The Soldier adjusted his scope. 

He said he could help. 

His finger tensed on the trigger. 

Ghost put a hand on the gun. “No.” 

“Get off,” he growled. 

“He knew my name.”

“He is our mission.”

“He had my picture.” 

The Soldier’s eyes flicked over to her for a brief moment, eyebrows tensed. The sentiment of her statements clashed with the coldness of the voice. “I don’t care,” he answered.

She jumped from his left to right side, bringing her elbow down hard on the gun. He didn’t drop it, but it knocked off his aim. He growled. “Don’t,” bringing the gun back up to knock her head but it was too late, she’d already disappeared again, this time appearing behind him to his left, using his own movement, plus a low kick to knock him off balance. He stumbled forward briefly and threw his arm behind him, clipping her mask. “Ah, fuck!” she yelled, “You beast!” He slung his gun behind his back and jumped the four stories, landing solidly on his feet. Her head rang from the blow. This guy was relentless. 

She couldn’t jump that far, but she phased, dropping from one floor to the other until she made ground level. She stalked through the wall and pursued the Winter Soldier. He was fast. His stride was as fast as her run. He aimed as he walked towards the flightpath of the helicopter, to the east, firing shots into the night. She heard one ping off the helicopter hanging in the sky, framed by the mountains rising behind it. He was close. He would kill the Doctor. 

“Don’t you have a past?” she asked. The Soldier didn’t respond. “Don’t they have something on you that makes you work?” Still no answer. Clearly sympathy wasn’t the play. She should have known. S.H.I.E.L.D. doesn’t really cultivate sympathy in the higher ranks. She ran, using her phasing to make small, incremental jumps to increase her speed. She hated doing it. Those sort of micro-phases took a lot of work to keep precise, and caused a lot of pain. She’d be paying for this later on. 

The Soldier stopped, raising the rifle to his eye. The chopper was almost out of range. Ghost knew this was his last good shot. If she could foil this, the Doctor would be...well, at least not dead. She ran harder, closing in on the black silhouette. She leaped, bringing her knees close to her chest and, with all the force she could muster, pulling from her quantum energy reserves, she kicked the Soldier in the back, hurling him forwards, and sending the gun skidding through the dust. 

She slammed into the ground, groaning. The pain was overwhelming. She heard a growling huff from the Soldier. His boots crunched the dirt as he retrieved his firearm. Ava sat up, leaning on her elbows. He stalked toward her, reaching down and attempting to pull her up by her arm. Ava phased through his grip and stood up on her own. 

“You ruined my shot,” he stated “you’ve compromised the mission.” 

“And now?” Ava asked. She held her body in an active stance, one foot in front of her, arms prepared to respond to blows. The Soldier stood at ease. Both stood in silence until a familiar voice came into their ears. 

“Mission report?” Rumlow asked through the comms. 

The Soldier’s hand flew to his ear, and he turned away from Ghost. “Infiltration completed. Target data successfully acquired. Human target not extracted, nor eliminated. Third party present, South African accent present among them. Use of poison gas rendered myself unable to prevent their extraction. Agent Ghost did neutralize two of the third party agents. Human target was removed through a window by helicopter which had connected via a magnetic device attached at an earlier time.”

“Why didn’t you neutralize the target when he was being removed?” Rumlow demanded. Ghost shot forward as she heard the Winter Soldier begin to answer.

She grabbed at his comm device, and let it drop through a gloved hand, before doing the same with her own. Her heart hammered in her chest as she watched the dead-eyed mask stare at her. The mask gave away nothing, but his hands flexed in frustration.

“What the hell are you doing, Agent?” he growled.


	4. A Plan

“What do you mean, ‘the mission was compromised’?” Pierce asked. The Secretary of the World Security Council maintained a calm demeanor and adjusted his thick, black-rimmed glasses. “You used one of our most elite assets for this. What happened?”

Rumlow folded his hands in front of him, answering the questions directly and without hesitation. “We were interrupted during extraction. A group of independent mercenaries by the looks of it. From the Winter Soldier’s report, it sounds like it could be Klaue. Probably wants to sell the tech to the highest bidder.”

“Why didn’t they kill him? The Soldier is a machine; there’s no reason that man should still be alive.”

“It's likely he couldn’t secure a shot. The man was dangling from a helicopter at night. Agent O’Neil suspects Ghost may have suffered a collapse due to the lack of an adequate recovery period after previous…”

“The world doesn’t wait for ‘recovery periods’, Agent. We needed her skills on this. Her for the thieving, him for the killing. It should have worked like a dream.”

“Understood sir.”

“So, explain this to me, Agent -- all this being well and good, but why the hell aren’t my weapons back where they should be, in their holding units?”

“Shortly after the mission went sour, we lost contact. It’s an isolated area but something had to go haywire with their coms. They gave a brief mission report at 0100 hours and haven’t heard from them since. We’re attempting to locate them but the area is difficult to penetrate. They’re near the region of Abkhazia, a Russia occupied territory of Georgia.” 

“And what condition is our Winter Soldier in?”

“As of now, he’s been out of his cryogenic stasis for seventy-two hours. He’s worked long term assignments without an issue, but lately there has been some evidence that he’ll need his brain wiped again.”

“And how's our Ghost doing?”

Rumlow grimaced and shook his head. “From the clean up report, it looks like she's doing pretty good. They said it appeared she had materialized her arm through a man's torso. It appears she reached through the guy's stomach, got his gun and shot his partner.” He raised his eyebrows, “I thought she might have been getting too soft but looks like she's got a bit of a mean streak in her after all.”

Pierce laughed. “I knew that girl would come around. Before you know it, she'll be part of our ranks, you'll see.” 

“The assets should now be making their way to our nearest safe house, while continuing to attempt establishing contact. I’ll update immediately when contact has been established. Once I’ve acquired more information, I’ll decide on next steps.”

“Thank you Rumlow, keep me informed. You’re dismissed.”

________________

The Winter Soldier scowled at the Ghost. She stood there, her image jitterbugging around. He had been getting ready to report her interference when she grabbed his communication device, letting it fall through her gloved hand. It sparked and smoked leaving the acrid smell of burning electrical components in the air. She reached up, placed a hand to her helmet. It released a hiss as she pulled it away from her face. He turned away. He had been ordered not to show his face or see hers. He heard her device crackle. It was just past 1 a.m. In light of the failure of the mission, they should be making their way toward Jvari, from there to Zugdidi where they would report back, and fly out to Istanbul, making their way to the S.H.I.E.L.D. safe house. 

Behind his back, Ghost rolled her eyes, “You can look at me, I’m not Medusa.” Without her helmet, her voice sounded soft and strained, like somebody fighting off a migraine. The Soldier noted the accent.

“I’ve been ordered not to see your face.”

“Do you always follow orders?”

“I’m a soldier.”

“Well, you weren’t supposed to know my name either, but I suppose you now have that filed away in that super-soldier brain of yours.” 

She was right. Ava. He heard the doctor say it. He could fix her. Fix. “He said he could fix you. What does that mean?”

He could hear a small hiss of a sigh. “Look, I’m not having this conversation with you if you won’t look at me. We need to make our way towards Jvari, but I should stay concealed. I can't maintain constant invisibility long term, and without that, I’m not exactly low-profile even in civilian clothes.” 

He turned towards her. “Fine.” She might have assumed he couldn’t see anything in the pitch black night, now miles outside the Postkho Esteri settlement, down in the valley near the winding Patara Enguri river, but his enhanced abilities allowed him to discern that she had dark skin, a strong jaw, rings under her eyes. A mess of hair fell out of her hood, the braids loose. It was hard for his eyes to adjust to her image which blurred and danced in front of him. She sighed and pulled her hood down. 

“I’m sorry about the com. And, you know, about ruining your shot.”

He felt a dip in his stomach he couldn’t place and stared at her blankly, the lower half of his face still covered by his facemask, black circles smudged around his eyes. “We have to travel just over a mile, over this ridge. Jvari is on the other side. From there we can get a vehicle and make our way into Zugdidi. There should be an aircraft prepped there a hangar outside of town."

Ghost nodded, and they began the trek in the cool but humid night over the terrain. She bent in on herself as she walked, like dried leaf curling inward, folding her arms across her chest, rubbing her hands up and down over her shoulders, like she couldn’t get. A grimace strained her face. She was slow now. The Soldier kept pausing, turning back and watching as she caught up. He knew it would be a slow mile over the terrain, but the pace wasn’t good enough. Why was she so slow? She was not an asset like he had been led to believe. She was a liability. Rumlow had been right. 

He had warned him that this partner might be difficult. He was supposed to evaluate her, mentor her. It was part of his mission. “You’re slow,” he stated. 

Ghost looked up at him. “Shut up,” she snarled. “My body is not cooperating.”

“You should make it cooperate,” he stated. She rolled her eyes. 

“What do you know about it, Soldier?” 

“Our bodies are tools. If they fail, S.H.I.E.L.D. will acquire a new tool and get rid of the old one. You need to make it work.”

“Look, I’d like to, believe me I would,” she said, as they walked side by side through the grass covered hills, “but this...this power I have? It’s not a gift. It is not an... enhancement like your modifications. It’s a disease.”

“Why does it matter? You are here; you have orders.”

“Do you ever consider anything other than orders, Soldier?”

He paused, searching his mind. No, he didn’t and the question gave him a headache to consider. “No,” he said. They weren’t moving quick enough. “If you can’t overcome this pain, SHIELD will not keep you. If you cannot kill when something personal is at stake, SHIELD will not keep you.”

“What do you know about it anyway?”

“About what?” 

“Pain.”

“I'm strong, not invincible.” 

“OK then, how do you deal with it when you're on a mission like this?” 

He ignored her and looked up toward the sky. “This is no good, we’re not making time.”

“So lets run.” 

He shook his head. “You’re still weak, it won’t be enough." He looked at her then at the sky, mulling over the possibilities. "I’ll have to carry you.”

The Ghost laughed and shook her head. “Uh, no. No way in hell.”

“Just climb on my back. We’re losing dark. We need to lift a car, and we should try to avoid doing it in such a small town in broad daylight.”

“You are losing your mind if you think I’m letting you give me a piggyback ride. It's humiliating. You really think SHIELD wants one of their top assets climbing on somebody’s back? I don’t need a babysitter and I definitely don’t need one who gives piggyback rides.”

The Soldier felt frustration in some corner of his brain, pawing around like a feral cat. “This is a problem. This is why I’m here. I’m not a babysitter, I’m a mentor. And right now, you are letting your emotions get in the way of completing our mission. Feelings -- pride, humiliation -- they come and go in a moment and in the end, when your target is lying dead, nobody cares what you had to do to get there, ok? All that matters is that you’ve done your job, you’ve fulfilled your mission,” he stopped and turned to face her. “That’s why we’re here wasting time and energy climbing through this wasteland instead back at base. The doc said something that messed with your feelings, so you messed with me.” He narrowed his eyes and grabbed the collar of Ghost’s suit, pulling her roughly until her feet barely scraped the ground. “I don’t like being messed with. I don’t like leaving missions unfinished. But they said you’re valuable and here to learn, so I’m not going to kill you. But you better wise up, and get on my fucking back before I knock you out and drag you to Jvari, got it?”

She curled her lip and phased through his hand. “Fine professor” she snapped in her quiet voice. He turned and crouched. She hopped on his back, gripping her thighs around his torso and her arms around his neck. “Giddy up, I guess” she smirked. 

“Don’t say that. Focus on the mission. I’ll explain the pain management we talked about as we go.” His chest strained as he felt her grip around him. He placed his hands on the back of her thighs, feeling the body underneath the thick suit flex against his grip. He started walking, feeling the rhythm of her body against him. 

When the small town of Jvari finally appeared at the foot of the other side of the mountain, the soft light of dawn was beginning to break along the horizon, turning the countryside into a soft, dark violet. The girl had only managed to make it through ten minutes of his lecture on mind-body pain management techniques before she fell asleep. He was starting to wonder if she really had the endurance for this sort of thing. He had to re-adjust his grip throughout the journey as she came in and out of reality. It was odd, carrying a load that disappeared and reappeared. It threw off his balance. 

He shrugged his shoulders, but the girl didn’t budge. “Hey,” he whispered, his voice harsh. He felt uncomfortable with this whole situation. The girl’s weight pressed to his back, her breath on his neck. Being this close with another person made the bile in his stomach churn and his brain feel like it was pummeling a brick wall. Heat crawled up his collar and down his chest. He needed her off. 

“Hey!” she yelled. 

He had dropped her. “Sorry,” he said, “you phased and slipped off.”

She narrowed her eyes at him. He just looked away. 

“Bullshit,” she said. 

“Yep. But we’re here. Get your mask on and make yourself invisible. Go steal us a car.”


	5. Orders

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ghost and the Soldier establish contact with STRIKE team commander Rumlow and make their way to an outlying airport. They're stuck in the car and have to chat. Also: kebabs.

Ghost fumed, sitting in the backseat as the Winter Soldier drove the small sedan through the Georgian countryside, thinking about his stupid lecture. Did the brute really think she didn't know basic coping skills when she had lived with chronic pain most of her life? She rummaged through the backpacks they had carried with them, and pulled out a small pack of disposable wipes. She yanked back her hood and pulled her arms out of the suit, letting it sit around her waist as she wiped the sweat out of her armpits, then ran another cloth over her mask, wiping the remains of crusted blood from between its crevices. She always felt a bit dirty after a killing, no matter how many times she did it. After her first, she had stood in the shower for hours, letting the water fall on her, through her. There was no shower here and no slowing down. There was an outlying, small scale airport only about 40 kilometers out from Jvari. Once they reached the city, they’d pick up a burner and try to establish some sort of contact with SHIELD. Her stomach knotted. He’d tell them. The soldier would report her hesitation with Dr. Moretti and she’d be absolutely fucked. 

Dr. Moretti. 

Ava, put the wipe down in her lap and gazed out the window, watching the landscape pass. Smooth, ancient churches and small gatherings of houses buzzed by. What did Moretti know? Could he really fix her, or was it some sort of trick? But the image…he knew her name. Nobody knew her, she was born and raised in an underground world of cutting edge scientific research where everyone’s morality was just a little too flexible. Then again, that was exactly the world in which Moretti operated. 

“You’re thinking about the doctor.” The Soldier’s words broke Ava’s reverie. 

“Of course I am. What the hell was SHIELD thinking, giving me a mark that knew my name?” Ava’s voice had lost its hard edge, focused on unraveling the story she didn’t know. 

“Marks think they know a lot of things, especially in the face of death.” He responded, “Don’t give it so much credence.” He glanced at Ava in the rearview mirror, “They’ll say anything to save their life, throw you off balance. I’ve had some call me by a name I don’t recognize, others claim they knew me. Don’t let it get in your head. At the end of the day, they’re a mark like all the others. And so what if they did know you? You’re going to fold your hands, go back to Rumlow and tell him sorry?” the Soldier smirked. “Things don’t work like that, you know they don’t.”

Ava threw him a cautious glance and raised an eyebrow. “Well, SHIELD’s made promises.”

“You too, am I right? You traded something, we all have. You asked for something they give you, but you gotta keep your promises too. You can’t skip out on your end of the deal. Besides, what we do — it's a gift. The organization we serve — it provides safety. SHIELD can’t do their job if we don’t do ours.”

“The guy had my fucking baby picture,” Ava shook her head, “how can I just kill the guy? He could be the key to fixing this —” she gestured up and down at her own body. 

“You’ve got a mouth on you,” the Soldier responded. Ava rolled her eyes. “Look, you’re practically a kid but you’ve gotta grow up about this, ok? This situation we’re in — we’ve made a trade.”

“I didn’t ask for this trade,” Ava responded, “they said they’d fix this but all they’ve gotten me is a suit that makes it easier to weaponize my disease.”

“Yeah, well I don’t remember signing up to get a metal kill arm, but here we are.”

“Can you take off that fucking ridiculous mask?” The Soldier’s eyebrows furrowed. Ava sighed. “You’re supposed to be training me right? Isn’t driving through the countryside in broad daylight with a face mask on a bit, I don’t know - conspicuous? Look, all those people in the small towns we pass are going to see you and call it in.” Ava shook her head. The Soldier looked like he was having a hard time processing the request. For someone who could pull off the trickiest assassinations of the century, the guy could sure be a dunce. 

However, he must have reached a conclusion, because his hand went to his face, slowly lifting the metal guard from its place and setting down on the seat next to him, revealing a scruffy growth of facial hair covering a cleft chin and strong jaw. His eyes looked back at her, still covered with black grease paint from the night before. 

She crawled over the seat to sit beside him. “Here.” She handed him a fresh wet wipe. “Take care of that make up. You look like a raccoon.” He reached for it, keeping his metal hand on the staring wheel, wiping and folding as he drove, intense and focused. 

“So what’s your name?” she asked. 

“I’m not telling you that,” he responded. 

“Well, what’ve they got on you, to make you stay?”

“No.”

Ava sighed. “Well this hardly seems fair. You know my name, you know my collateral. Seems like you owe me if I’m going to trust you.”

“Why would you trust me? If Rumlow asks me to kill you, I will.”

Ava felt a chill slip through her, and shifted her weight, moving in close to the soldier’s face. His hair tickled her cheek. “Listen, Soldier, all it would take is one finger in that skull of yours and I could scramble your fucking brain to eggs so quick you wouldn’t even remember your own mother. You’ll be drooling in some Georgian hospital pissing in buckets, so don’t think for a fucking minute you’ll kill me, no matter who’s doing the ordering.”

He nodded. “That’s smart. You’re good at this when you stop trying to make friends.”

Ava huffed and fell back against her seat. 

“Look you’ve gotta get it in your head that this isn’t the sort of job where you ask questions and get answers. You follow orders. Period.”

“What about when a mark has something I want? Or…” she hesitated, “when he doesn’t deserve what he’s getting?”

The Soldier looked at her, confused. 

“Look, death is for everybody. We are born into this life deserving death. So what if we’re the one’s giving it out? It's going to come for us, too, we’ll get it as good as we’re giving it out.”

Ava pulled her legs to her chest, setting her chin on her knees, watching him. 

The Soldier continued, “when you’re face to face with your target and you find yourself hesitating, you have to ask yourself: are you a coward? Because you might think it's a lot of things stopping you from pulling the trigger. You might think it's hope or courage or loyalty or love. But you’re wrong. It's one thing, and one thing only: fear. So when you’re there and you hesitate, ask yourself: would you rather be a killer or a coward? Then you make your choice and it's sealed. So stop being a coward, Ava and just pull the fucking trigger.”

The Soldier navigated the streets of Zugdidi, rolling past ancient landmarks and cathedrals, past low rectangular buildings of stone and brick. He pulled up outside a small store selling phones, sim cards and other electronic goods. He reached into the back and pulled his back pack into the front seat, digging out a long sleeve dark gray shirt, pulling it over his head and putting a glove over his metal hand. Reaching into a side pocket, he pulled out a handful of the local currency. He threw the bag into the back seat and got out. Ava pulled her arms back into her suit as his door slammed, turning his words from earlier over her mind. Was he right? Death was certainly coming for her. She could feel the march of it, slow but steady with every beat of her torn-apart heart. What was it that held her so hesitant to kill?

\---

The Soldier closed the door, looking around and taking in everyone passing. He crossed in front of the vehicle and entered the small corner shop, windows filled with signs and stickers advertising various communications companies in the swirling, curling Georgian script. A few moments later, the Soldier exited carrying three pre-paid cell phones. He walked a block down the road and turned down the first alley, pulling a small device out of his pocket. He activated it, scrambling any devices that may attempt to listen to his conversation. He dialed a number he had memorized long ago. It hadn’t gotten past the first ring when Rumlow picked up. 

“Soldier, mission report?” 

Mechanically, the Winter Soldier recounted in detail the events of the previous night, describing Ghost’s hesitation when the doctor had said her name and claimed he could heal her. He explained how they had arrived in Zugdidi, Ghost in the car, and the infrequently used airport nearby they could use to move out of the area.

“Move forward as planned, Soldier. Get in touch when you are in the air. We have intelligence that another force is in operation in your area and, while I doubt they could get to you, they could very well kill the Ghost. Make sure she gets out of there safe. Once you’re in a secure location, we will forward you information on where to find the Doctor. When you find him, Ghost must kill him. Make her. It must be done, we need her tough Soldier. Otherwise, she's not worth her upkeep. If she does not comply, shoot her.”

“Understood.” He hung up the phone and walked back to the car. 

\---

Ava straightened when the Soldier returned. “Been having a little chat with Rumlow?” she asked. The Soldier had exchanged his military gear on top with a gray, hooded shirt, but it didn’t do much to hide what the Soldier was, broad and solid, commanding more space than his six foot frame warranted. 

"I come bearing gifts." He stated, flashing two skewers of meat in one hand and several lengths of something that looked like thick knobbly hand-dipped candles dangling from the other.

"Oh, now don't think that's going to make me forget you've just ratted me out." She muttered.

"Just don't scramble my brains, hm?" He handed her a skewer and slid into the front seat, setting the odd, dangling food on his lap to close the door.

Ava bit into her skewer. "Yeah, ok, no scrambling," she held up her fingers in a mock salute, "scouts honor. So Professor, what'd Rumlow say? Did I fail the class?"

He shifted into gear and pulled away from the store. "No. We're still on course for the safe house. From there, we'll await instructions on pursuit. Intelligence is working out the probable locations of the target now. Mission has been reconfigured from priority extraction to priority assassination."

"Hmm…" 

They finished the kebabs in silence

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Face masks in broad daylight WAS conspicuous back when I first wrote this chapter. :( Probably wouldn't be blinked at now.


	6. Ping

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ghost and the Winter Soldier arrive at the hangar and everything goes smoothly. 
> 
> Just kidding. Things explode.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’m back and feeling much better! My family had a run in with Covid that slowed me down for a bit but we all came out of it ok, if a little exhausted. Enjoy the chapter!

It wasn’t a long way between Jvari and Zugdidi. On the way, both the Winter Soldier and Ava replaced their face coverings, and prepared their packs. Ava stared over at him through the feed of her mask as he drove. He looked robotic, inhuman and intimidating in his mask. Is that how people felt looking at her? No, she thought, turning to look at her reflection in the car window. When they saw him, he appeared to be a body without a soul; she was a soul without a body. Neither quite human. Turning a corner, the hangar became visible. The Soldier reached into the back seat and pulled his rifle into his lap while Ava shouldered her rucksack. 

Pulling the glove compartment open, she froze -- a small skid and a slight “ping” resonated from the undercarriage of the car. The Soldier flung his door open and leapt from the vehicle as Ava felt adrenaline flood her system. Crossing her arms over her head and pulling her legs to her abdomen, she went insubstantial and dropped through the car as an explosion ripped it apart, sending debris flying. She hit the ground, rolling to a stop on the edge of the ill-maintained roadway, springing to her feet in time to watch heated leftovers of the sedan fall from overhead. She scanned the area until she saw the Soldier. He looked like a sentinel, standing tall on the opposite side of the roadway, off the road in the brush. 

“Soldier! Status!” She called. His response was inaudible, but he signaled affirmative. His hand made a series of gestures, indicating she should move forward among the unknown amount of hostile forces. 

She signed back affirmative. Visual signs weren’t ideal but they had little choice. He gave a small nod in response and pulled his rifle from where it hung across his back, levelling it towards the hangar. Just like back at the compound, she would draw them out and he would take them out. She dematerialized and walked towards the hangar, invisible. The metal building bent, a half circle in the middle of the Georgian countryside, the asphalt cutting out a long runway around it. She waited until she was surrounded by asphalt and reignited her visibility, flickering in the late morning sunlight until she heard guns begin exploding into action all around her. She flickered in and out, allowing the bullets to pass through her as she continued toward the hangar. 

A voice ordered the men to hold fire and approach for hand to hand combat. She smirked under her mask. Like fish in a barrel, they exited -- gun to eyes -- approaching her head on, only to be picked off by a blast, one after another from the Soldier’s rifle. It was almost too easy.

Ghost continued to move forward among the blasts but paused. Her partner's gunshots had halted. She turned. A military vehicle had stopped and unloaded men while they were drawing the gunmen from the hangar out into the open. The Soldier had been intercepted and caught in hand to hand combat. She watched as he exchanged blows with too many men. Did he know? He had to have seen it coming -- but of course they had no communication system, thanks to her. She stood in the shadow of the hangar -- one mad dash and she’d be on the jet, if the goons hadn’t disabled it yet. She growled in frustration and turned. The Winter Soldier was moody, condescending and slightly annoying, but he was her partner, and she couldn’t leave him behind.

Before she could start running, an arm wrapped itself around her neck. Her hands flew up to the forearm pulled tight under her chin. 

“Ok freak --” his other hand pawed around her belt and hips, “where’s it at?”

She leaned back and phased through him, punching him squarely in the back of the head, watching him drop. Two more approached from the hangar, swinging. She dispatched one with a quick quantum pulse to the chest, and spun to catch the blonde approaching her with a quick jab to the jaw. 

A shockwave interrupted her punch. It rippled through her body from her gut, where she saw her opponent's fist holding something flush against her. She shuddered, solid. Her fibers knit together and she could not loosen them."What have you done?" She heard her inhuman voice ask.

"A gift from Dr. Moretti." He sneered

She raised a leg to kick him away but he leapt from her, using his opposite hand to drag a knife down her calf. "Ah, fuck!" She shrieked, pulling a fist and smashing his nose in. He fell back on the ground, clutching his nose as it poured blood. She pulled the object the man had planted on her off the suit and turned to run toward the Soldier.

God, he was a behemoth. Only a handful of the initial goons still stood, the Winter Soldier holding them off with a knife. He spun towards her, catching a man in the throat with his blade.

"Go low!" Ghost called. He crouched down and Ava planted a boot on his shoulder, launching herself at the face of the opponent approaching from the Soldier's rear. Latching her legs around his head, she twisted until the neck cracked and his body dropped. She hit the ground with both feet and stood to evaluate. "All clear?" She muttered.

"Clear." The Winter Soldier grabbed a man by the collar and began dragging him toward the hangar. 

"Wait a sec. Why're you bringing him?" Ava asked.

"Interrogation".

"We don't need that one, I've got a better one."

"Why's yours better?"

Ava uncurled her fist to reveal the small disc she carried. "He hit my suit with this," she explained, "and it held me in equilibrium."

"It what?"

"It stopped my phasing!"

The Winter Soldier nodded. "You're right. We'll take yours." He dropped the man he was carrying and plunged the knife into his throat. 

"Damn, Soldier. Ice cold."

They began walking back to the hangar. "You've got some blood on your boot."

"The asshole solidified me so he could hit me-"

"Black holds up against blood stains much better. Ever consider a switch?"

He still had his mask over his face but Ava could feel the sarcasm dripping through. Was he teasing her? She didn’t even know he was capable of humor.

"Yeah, I'll put in a wardrobe request first thing on return."

Ava reached down and kicked the man who had cut her, forcing him onto his stomach. She pulled a cord from her utility belt and bound his hands. "Let's go for a little trip, hm?" She muttered, jerking him up by the collar and hauling him between her and the Soldier towards the quinjet.

As they approached the jet, the Soldier lowered the cargo door. Ava dragged the man up the ramp and forced him down into a seat in the back of the jet. Quinjets like this came equipped with two types of harnesses: voluntary and involuntary. She pulled the thick straps tight against his shoulders, abdomen, and shins, ratcheting them in place. He wasn’t going anywhere. Her punch must have landed squarely; he was conscious but concussed, eyes vacant and head rolling. Blood decorated the simple bullet proof vest and black pants he wore. Leaving him, she buzzed herself into the cockpit and sat next to the Winter Soldier who began guiding the jet out of the hangar for a vertical take off. 

\-----

The Winter Soldier set a path, coasting towards Istanbul over the Black Sea. Ghost released her helmet and sat it at her feet. “Why don’t you set the auto and we’ll do the interrogation?”

“I need more information first. What was that thing and what did it do?”

“What?” Ava questioned, “you want MORE information on me? I’ve given you a lot, Soldier, and you’ve given me nothing in return. You’re not getting it.”

The Soldier regarded her. He knew she was correct. He had gathered significant information on her -- information he did not have at the start of the mission, information his commanders had not seen fit to share with him. A shot of pain ran through his skull. He sought to complete his mission, but the multiple objectives were beginning to infringe on one another. He needed to bring Ghost -- Ava -- into compliance with SHIELD’s goals, which included her as a top-grade assassin. His orders hadn’t explicitly forbidden the sharing of “personal” information, and he began to feel an interior compulsion to talk with her, something like hunger or an itch. Not that he had much to share -- and what exactly was personal for a man who couldn’t remember anything anyway? 

“Okay,” he sighed. “You’re right. It’d be foolish of you to entrust me with so much information without something in return but here’s the deal: I can’t give that to you.”

Ava tsked and turned away. “Can’t or won’t?” she demanded. 

“Can’t.” 

“What the hell is that supposed to mean?” She asked, green eyes narrowed. Her suspicion prickled against him.

He shook his head. “No, I mean I really can’t. I don’t have anything to share that you’d be interested in.” His voice was soft and steady, giving away nothing. “Ask me something.”

“Ok, how about the arm?”

“What about it?”

“Where’d you get it? When -- why? Anything -- dealer’s choice.” Ava spoke in her pained voice, leaning against the back of her seat, stretching her arms over her head. 

The Soldier dug into his mind, scowling with the effort it took to sift through the vague memories and flashing images. “I remember -- having it,” he said, “and it was new.”

Ava let the silence hang for a moment before responding.“Do better.”

She thought he was lying, he realized. He let out a breath. “That’s it. That’s all.”

She shook her head. 

“I don’t remember," He repeated.

“You don’t remember getting the arm?”

“My memory -- its waking up, killing and darkness.”

Ava huffed, “Poetic, aren’t we?”

“No,” the Soldier felt heat crawling up his collar. “That’s it. That’s all I have.”

“Something easier then: your name.”

The Soldier reached up and removed his facemask. “I told you that’s all I have. I am called the Winter Soldier. I have no name and no past. I have missions.”

She sat up and leaned toward him, her face wearing a look he couldn't place.

“Holy shit,” she whispered. “You’re brainwashed.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wanted to add in a thank you to all who’ve left comments — I really appreciate hearing from all of you, it means a lot and is really encouraging. I appreciate you all giving me a shot on my first fic ♡


	7. Interrogation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Winter Soldier gets some answers and Ghost makes a decision.

“Holy shit,” Ava whispered. “You’ve been brainwashed.” Her stomach churned. The Soldier’s voice kept its same quiet stride, as if he hadn’t revealed something that spoke terrifying truths regarding SHIELD’s moral standing. 

He shrugged, “I have missions. It's sufficient. I remember every single one.”

She shook her head. “No, it's not.”

“You don’t miss what you never had.”

“You don’t even know what you had.” she whispered. The Soldier didn’t respond. 

Ava considered him for a moment. She'd been normal for a precious small moment of her life and she clung to those fading moments with a desperate fury. What would she be if she lost those? She looked at him, an ache washing over her. He wasn't stoic or mechanical or cold: he was empty. 

She sat up and turned to face him. “Ok, listen because I’m not going to explain this more than once.”

“What?”

“How my powers work.” She held out her hands in front of her, palms up. “Imagine you have a handful of metal marbles in your open palm. Typically, you’d be able to hold them easily enough. But now imagine you’re on a small boat during a storm. A little more tricky, isn’t it? The marbles are my atoms, the rocking boat is the molecular disequilibrium that causes my illness and allows me to phase. 

“Now imagine you put all those marbles in a tray with high walls along the edge. Much harder to lose them, right? You can spread the marbles all across the tray, even to the edges without fear of losing them. That’s my suit. It allows me more control to spread myself thin enough to see -- or shoot -- through. 

“Now this little item,” she held the small silver disc in front of the Soldier’s eyes. “acts as if somebody held a strong magnet to the bottom of the tray. All those little metal marbles rolling around would be drawn together, inseparable.” She halted, then continued in a low whisper, “A cure, in miniature.”

“You’re an idiot,” the Soldier said, “the first thing he did was after solidifying you was give you a six inch slice up the calf.”

Ava brought her foot up, examining the injury through the rip in the suit. “It’s barely a scratch. I didn’t even have to bandage it.”

The soldier stood. “It's not a cure, it’s a weapon -- don’t think otherwise for even a second or that’s the moment you get a bullet through the eyes.”

Ava looked up at him, “Doesn’t always sound that bad does it?”

“You don’t want to die, Ava, or else you wouldn’t be so desperate for a cure. Let’s get the info from this guy and get rid of him.”

\----

Ava crouched low in front of the restrained man. Sweat dotted his forehead under a sweep of crusted dirty blonde hair and his eyes flicked between her and the Soldier. She remained without her helmet, but the Soldier retained his full goggle and face mask combination. 

“Hello,” Ava crooned in the soft low voice one might use to calm a panicked animal. “I’m glad you could join us.” She flickered. “I am Ghost and this - “ she motioned with her hand, “is my partner, the Winter Soldier.”

The man flexed against his binding. 

“Why don’t you say hello?” Ava suggested, “we don’t want to be rude, do we? Especially to him,” she leaned in and pulled her voice into a mock whisper, "he's got a temper."

The man swallowed and stuttered a small, quiet hello. 

“There we go --” she reached out a hand and brushed back his hair, matted with blood. “You’re a compliant one, aren’t you?” She laughed and looked back at the Soldier “Moreso now than when he sliced up my leg, isn’t he?” The sentence degenerated into a snarl, “What’s your name?” she demanded. 

“Carl,” he answered in a yelp.

Ava stood up and crossed her arms. “Let’s get to the fun shall we?” She held up the disc between two fingers. “What is this and where did you get it?”

“Th-the doctor handed it out.” He answered. 

“Doctor Moretti?” 

“Yes, him. Leo Moretti.” 

“What the hell is it?” Ava snapped. 

“He had a name for it, called it a QUIP stabilizer.” 

“QUIP?”

“Quantum integrated particle stabilizer.” Carl provided, “He said it would disable you.”

“Well he got that part right, didn’t he, Carl.” Ava said, back to her crooning. “And how many of these does he have, exactly?”

Carl shook his head, “I don’t know. I’m a nobody, you know, just a guy.”

Ava pinched her brows in mock sympathy, “Oh Carl my friend, you’ll have to do better than that, or I’ll have to let my friend here take over.” As if on cue, the Soldier shifted to place a hand on the hilt of a long knife at his hip. 

The small movement provoked the hostage’s head to shake back and forth as if by compulsion. “No, no, no “ Carl said, “I only signed up because he said he’d fix her, I don’t know anything I swear.”

“You signed up -- where and how did Dr. Leo Moretti get a nice midwestern American like yourself here to Georgia?” she whispered. “Tell me -- is he a good man?”

The man’s eyes clamped shut, “He’s good enough -- my daughter, she was sick and it was terminal, he said he could fix her but it’d be me for her. He needed ‘strong men’ he said.” Carl barked out a laugh. 

“Who connected you?”

He shook his head, “I can’t tell you that.” 

Ava reached into a storage cupboard and brought out a bottle of water. She twisted the cap and held it to his lips. “Now Carl, that’s nonsense. You know very well how the connection was made.” He swallowed and she re-capped the bottle. 

“It was online, the guy was anonymous and forwarded the contact information. I can’t -- I’m not some kind of hacker, you know? I couldn’t dox the guy if I wanted to. I’d give you the information but back when I went to check it out, the thread was deleted and that was weeks ago. I don’t have anything for you. I responded I’d be interested, the guy sent me some plane tickets and a packet of instructions. I met up with some men, did some training. The next thing you know, I’m in Georgia fighting some phantom.”

“So why you, Carl? Out of all the parents out there, why you?”

He shrugged, his eyes starting to leak small tears, “I don’t know. I’m former military maybe? Kept up my fitness in the local MMA circuit as a hobby. He needed people who could act in a paramilitary way, I knew that going into it.”

Ava nodded and started to pace, her flickering growing more intense. “I need more Carl,” she gripped her hair in frustration, “what the hell am I supposed to do with this? Give me something I can use to save you.”

His body began to tremble head to toe. “I can tell you the QUIP is one and done. I don’t know how many he has made, but I can tell you he only gave two to our outfit -- one in the hangar and one on the truck crew. Each one only can be used once and apparently they’re a real bitch to refill.” He continued, picking up speed as if hoping each next thing would be the magic key to his life, “I can tell you we were supposed to rescue Moretti from you, and grab the USB with the stolen intel, but he wasn’t  _ with  _ you, was he? So where the hell is he and how will my daughter get her surgery if he’s not around?” He tears poured heavier, “I can tell you he’s got an outpost in Argentina, Somalia, Georgia and Canada. I can tell you he’s going to fix my daughter. I can tell you how amazing she is and how much she deserves this --”

“Ava,” the Winter Soldier spoke, his voice softer than the man would have supposed. 

Ghost looked toward him from her pacing, raising her head out of the desperate clutch of her hands. Her eyes burned and her heart clenched inside her chest. 

“Stop being a coward, Ava.”

She glanced toward Carl, eyes wide with sympathy. He looked back at her. 

Why is it, Ava wondered, that I am hesitant to kill? 

The sweat ran down his temples, mixing with the tears. His trembling did not stop. 

Is it love? Is it empathy?

Her hand started to shake, and sweat pricked at her in her suit. She raised a hand. 

No, none of that. She hesitated because in the face of the mark she saw her own face. She saw the phantom that haunted her as she drifted to sleep, the burden that weighed her down when she awoke, the truth she kept clasped close to her chest like the Magdalene's skull: death is coming. 

And it scared Ava shitless. 

At the moment death became a certainty for her mark, she saw her own fear spread on their face and when she slowed their death it felt reassuring: if their death was not certain what about her own? If they evaded death, couldn't she…?

It could be a lot of things stopping her, but Ava knew: it was fear. 

Ava met the hostage's eyes which danced as if electrified. She knelt down. Am I a coward or a killer? she wondered. She raised a hand and placed her palm on the father's chest. His body seized as she pulsed quantum energy into his chest. 

A killer, then. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you all have a great New Year!


End file.
